The Eagle is back ... He was the world's worst ski-jumper but Eddie Edwards is given the honour of carrying the Olympic torch for Vancouver Games

Twenty two years after he soared to worldwide fame as the bespectacled plasterer from Cheltenham who finished last in the ski-jumping at the Calgary Winter Games, Eddie Edwards has been accepted into the Olympic family.

After all that time as an outcast, shunned by the authorities yet loved by his fans, Eddie the Eagle will carry the Olympic torch on its relay around Canada to Vancouver for the Winter Games, which start on February 12.

His pride at being honoured when he holds the flame aloft in Winnipeg on January 7 will be enhanced by his pleasure at irritating all the stuffed shirts who thought they had kept him out.

Memorable: Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards in action at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary

‘I’m sure some people will think, “Oh , no, not him again”,’ Edwards said last week.

'But I quite enjoy that. I’m a thorn in their side and I enjoy just giving it another prod. They slammed the door in my face and said, “We don’t want you. Go away”. But I’m still here.’

His Olympic call has come from the British Columbia Tourist Board, who will pay for his trip.

‘They came directly to me, rather than go through the BOA,’ said Edwards. ‘The people in British skiing didn’t want me 20 years ago and they don’t want me now.

‘The personnel may have changed but the attitude hasn’t. It’s an old boys’ club, a bit like the old farts in rugby.’

In the Eighties, with his milk-bottle specs - which steamed up on the ski-jump - his ginger hair and trademark moustache, Eddie the Eagle captured the imagination of a public who had previously known little and cared less about the Winter Olympics.

Affection for this geeky oddball incensed those in the skiing community who felt he was making a mockery of their sport.

During the Calgary Games, when he became Britain’s first Olympic ski-jumper - and the only athlete ever mentioned in the closing speech because of his hopelessness - the Mr Magoo of the slopes received anonymous hate mail from rivals, upset he had stolen their limelight.

He sharply divided opinion. Was he an embarrassment in top-level competition or thepersonification of the Olympic ideal of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Games, who declared it was not about winning, but taking part.

Edwards was a star, the epitome of the British underdog. At the
height of Eagle-mania, he was earning £10,000 an hour, could stop the
traffic in the street and was rarely off TV.

‘For two years I was
all over the world,’ he said. ‘I was opening shopping centres, golf
courses, hotels, fun rides, doing TV and radio work, all kinds of
stuff. I’m not sure how long I could have kept up that pace but it was
great fun and really good money.

‘A lot of people thought I used ski-jumping to become famous but
that wasn’t the case at all. I was an athlete and wanted to be the best
I could be. But I did enjoy the attention and still do.’

He now
leads a double life - as Michael Edwards, married father of two young
daughters, who works as a self-employed builder; but he remains Eddie
the Eagle, available for functions, even though, at 45, his appearance
has changed significantly.

Twelve years ago he had surgery to
reduce his jaw and four years ago had lens implants, which meant he
could throw away his familiar spectacles.

‘I was concerned
because my glasses were part of how people recognised me’, he said.
‘But my eyesight is now fantastic and that’s more beneficial than being
recognised.’

The torrent of interest in him has slowed to a trickle but not dried
up. He charges £1,000 an hour for up to 30 after-dinner speeches a
year. There are also appearances on cruise ships, telling his life
story and giving motivational lectures.

After his initial impact
on the world stage, things went sour. He earned £700,000 in three years
but, because he was still a competing amateur, the money went into a
trust, which was unable to meet a tax bill and, in 1992, Edwards was
made bankrupt.

He sued the trustees for negligence and mismanagement, won and recouped some money.

Another
legacy left by Edwards was the Olympic authorities bringing in an
‘Eddie Rule’ which demanded competitors reach a certain standard in
order to qualify.

The British Ski Federation could still have picked him as a wild-card for the 1992 and 1994 Games. They chose not to.

Backed
by a sponsorship deal, Edwards moved to Lake Placid, in the United
States, trained for three-and-a-half years and improved dramatically.

Inspired by his legal battle with his trustees, Edwards embarked on a law course, was introduced to his future wife, Sam, and married her at a drive-through ceremony in Las Vegas in 2003. They have two daughters, Ottilee, 5, and Honey, 3.

Three incidents sum up his life. He had a No 2 hit in Finland with a song he does not understand (‘I told you I’d have a go at anything’).

He was persuaded to dress up as an eagle for an opening ceremony, only to find the only uniform they had was a chicken.

And he was lined up to present a TV show on the British bobsleigh team - but was dropped when the bobsleighers objected to him.

His profile could scale new heights soon with a film of his life starting production next year, with Rupert Grint, from the Harry Potter movies, in the title role.

All in all, Edwards has no regrets and is too cheerful to be bitter. He hopes to be in Vancouver working for TV, but he knows where he would rather be.

‘From the first of those 85,000 jumps to the last, I was always scared,’ he said, ‘At any time I could have killed myself. Yet when I got it right it was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done.’